BJ Sears Reddington's Phonelescope
USA, 2012
mixed media, found objects and electronics
41.5 w x 15 d x 34 h inches
In this animated artwork, a pierced ball or compass slowly rotates while light beams are refracted through a sphere, creating an eccentric light show. Reddington's Phonelescope also whispers through a solitary speaker, the audio component can be altered by the user.

Whispering Jack Reddington graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1899 and began his career as a mining engineer. His real passion however, was the transmission and amplification of sound waves. Jack, being a religious soul, believed the dynamic range of the human voice to be divine and he never left that precious insight out of any of his experiments in the caverns. The scientific beliefs of the day were that light waves, like sound waves, needed a medium for transmission and Jack spent all his off-hours trying to alter what was called the luminiferous aether (“aether wind”) that carried them. This was in complete contradiction to the early Michelson-Morley experiments. Jack’s belief was that using different wavelengths of light in the presence of the divine sound could slightly alter the aether itself and thus produce sounds never heard by man before. After several catastrophic experiments resulting in cave-ins, Jack was relieved of his duties and barred from the mines. Reddington’s Phonelescope is the only surviving machine from Jack’s ill-fated experiments. His 1912 patent remains his only legacy.

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